Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Employment prospects in the North are practically non-existent in the communities. It is becoming increasingly difficult to earn a living. The government has stated for some time now that they will give preference to northern contractors who put in a bid. To date, this has not yet happened. As of this minute, there is a contractor from my riding who is from the South and who does not have a single Inuk working for him. Seeing this is very depressing. Although this has been improving slowly, we have been trying to tell the government to hire northern contractors to keep the economy going in the communities. When the government hires southern contractors, they should tell the contractors to hire the people from the communities because jobs are hard to come by in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause